Browns hope to regroup for Steelers, stay in playoff hunt

“It's Steeler week,” as Rob Chudzinski says with a certain resolve. His Browns still have a chance at the Browns' second-best Thanksgiving-time record in the last 10 years, but not if they don't get a Cincinnati stinker out of their system.

The Browns are one of six teams that are just one game behind the two teams in the lead for the second wild-card spot. With six games to play, there's time.

The wild ideas are gone. A 1-4 skid and getting outscored 31-0 in the previous day's second quarter tend to leave a mark.

For the first time following any of the recent defeats, head coach Rob Chudzinski did not use his Monday-after briefing to say, "Our goals are still in front of us."

His team is coming off the franchise's second-most lopsided defeat (41-20 at Cincinnati) since 2010 (41-9 at Pittsburgh). The other loss that was by more than 21 points was 34-12 at Denver last December.

The Browns led 13-0 at Cincinnati. They could have been as good as 5-5 after 10 games for only the fourth time in 15 years.

Instead, they head into a home game against Pittsburgh at 4-6. There have been worse years, but the team has been 4-6 before, too, and that never ended well.

Pat Shurmur's 2011 team was 4-6 on its way to 4-12.

Romeo Crennel's 2008 team likewise faded from 4-6 to 4-12.

Crennel also was 4-6 in 2005, not long before one of the most infamous losses in franchise era, 41-0 at home to Pittsburgh on Christmas Eve. First-year general manager Phil Savage was fired during the week after that game, then rehired before the season finale, by which point president John Collins got the boot instead. The final record was 6-10.

Butch Davis' 2003 team was 4-6, and then began the home stretch with a 13-6 home loss to Pittsburgh. The final record was 5-11.

The point is that 4-6 has been nowhere ... and didn't look like anywhere by the end of Sunday's implosion on the Ohio River.

By halftime, the early lead seemed like ancient history. Yet, Chudzinski tried hard to turn the page, putting extra inflection on his words when he said, "It's Steeler week."

"The Cincinnati game," he said, "is one we can learn from and grow from for the future if we approach it the right way.

"It was one game, and we have six more to go. There's a lot still out in front of us."

Given the team slump, he would have sounded foolish not to be vague about what exactly it is in front of his team.

Chudzinski said he is "excited" about playing three of the next four games at home. The remaining schedule, in order:

• Home to Pittsburgh (4-6)

• Home to Jacksonville (1-9)

• At New England (7-2 going into Monday night's game at Carolina)

• Home to Chicago (6-4)

Page 2 of 2 - • At New York Jets (5-5)

• Rematch at Pittsburgh

First up: The Steelers.

The Browns are 0-6 against Pittsburgh with Chudzinski as an assistant coach (2004, 2007, 2008). The Steelers were division champions in all three of those seasons, though, and have struggled through much of this year.

Beating Pittsburgh to improve to 5-6 would count for something.

The Browns' records after 11 games in the last 10 years have been 4-7, 3-8, 4-7, 3-8, 7-4, 4-7, 1-10, 4-7, 4-7 and 3-8. Their record against Pittsburgh in the last 10 years is 3-17.

Put yourself in Chudzinski's shoes. The man is 45 years old with his first shot at being a head coach. He is not submitting to either history or Sunday's miserable game.

"We have a very close team," Chudzinski said. "These guys will fight for each other and compete.